Tompkins: Red snapper regulation debate resumes

The 2009 recreational red snapper season in federal Gulf of Mexico water promises to be more liberal than this past year’s season. But not by much.

It’ll be a whole 10 days longer than the 2008 season.

Of course, it’ll still be 118 days shorter than the 2007 season. And it’ll be 289 days shorter than the year-round red snapper season of just a few years ago, before congressional mandates to stop and reverse a steep decline in the snapper population forced federal fisheries managers to severely reduce both season length and bag limits on the popular offshore species.

Federal fisheries managers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service are finalizing rules that would set the recreational red snapper season for federal waters to run June 1-Aug. 15 — 76 days — this year.

Texas may be alone

Those rules won’t be official for another week or so. And they could change even after the season starts, depending on whether Florida follows through on its promise to change its state-water rules on red snapper fishing to be consistent with federal regulations.

The 2009 recreational fishing season for red snapper in federally controlled waters of the Gulf of Mexico is set to open June 1 and run for 76 days, through Aug. 15.﻿

The 2009 recreational fishing season for red snapper in federally controlled waters of the Gulf of Mexico is set to open June 1 and run for 76 days, through Aug. 15.﻿

Photo: Joe Doggett, Houston Chronicle

Photo: Joe Doggett, Houston Chronicle

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The 2009 recreational fishing season for red snapper in federally controlled waters of the Gulf of Mexico is set to open June 1 and run for 76 days, through Aug. 15.﻿

The 2009 recreational fishing season for red snapper in federally controlled waters of the Gulf of Mexico is set to open June 1 and run for 76 days, through Aug. 15.﻿

Photo: Joe Doggett, Houston Chronicle

Tompkins: Red snapper regulation debate resumes

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Florida fisheries officials are scheduled to vote in mid-June on a proposal to modify their current red snapper regulations to mirror those in effect in federal waters.

If Florida adopts the change, Texas will be the only Gulf state that has red snapper regulations differing from the federal rules.

Texas regulations, in effect in Gulf water inside the state’s nine-nautical-mile jurisdiction, allow year-round harvest of red snapper and set a four-snapper daily limit, two more than allowed in federal waters.

If Florida unexpectedly backs out of the deal to comply with federal regulations on recreational fishing for red snapper, NOAA fisheries managers will move to close the season Aug. 1 instead of Aug. 15, staff with NOAA Fisheries Service’s southeast regional office said this past week.

The season dates for recreational red snapper season are based on federal estimates of how long it will take anglers to catch 2.45 million pounds of red snapper, the annual quota allowed under the Congressionally-mandated snapper recovery program.

Based on currently best-available data (which everyone agrees is suspect), recreational anglers can take 2.45 million pounds of snapper from the Gulf without negatively impacting the rebuilding of the red snapper population.

Harvest limit discussed

Under the current red snapper management plan, the annual quota (Total Allowable Catch, or TAC) is set to limit harvest to a level that will allow the snapper population to slowly rebuild to a point federal fisheries manages consider “recovered.” The Congressionally-mandated target date for reaching that “recovered” status is 2032.

Federal officials estimated recreational landings of red snapper during the 66-day (June 1 -Aug.5) 2008 recreational open season exceeded that 2.45-million-pound TAC by about 1.2 million pounds. And making up for that 2008 “overage” was factored into setting the length of the 2009 red snapper season.

Texas fisheries officials have consistently refused to change state-water red snapper regulations to mirror the more conservative federal rules, much to the approval of many of the state’s offshore anglers who question whether the red snapper population off Texas is in the dire straits federal managers say and resent the draconian limits on the hugely popular snapper.

Value, ethics challenged

But some anglers see the discrepancy between federal and Texas’ snapper regulations as of questionable value. Relatively few red snapper are found in Texas’ state waters, particularly along the heavily-fished and comparatively shallow upper coast. And federal fisheries managers penalize the entire Gulf red snapper fishery for Texas’ year-round season, reducing the Gulf-wide season length to account for fish they estimate anglers take in Texas waters during the federal closed season.

Also, the “loophole” of allowing year-round harvest of red snapper in Texas waters is seen by some as a way for “ethically-challenged” anglers to illegally land snapper from federal waters during the closed season but claim they caught them from state waters, where snapper harvest is legal.

Offshore anglers will have to wait until at least 2011 for any possible substantive changes in federal red snapper regulations.

Research updating the Gulf-wide red snapper stock assessment is scheduled to begin later this year, said Andy Strelcheck, biologist with NOAA Fisheries Service’s southeast regional office.

Managers will use that stock assessment, which will not be finalized until sometime in 2010, to measure the fisheries’ recovery and decide how much, if any, the annual red snapper harvest quota can be increased.

Until then, offshore anglers are going to have to endure very brief open seasons for what is arguably the most targeted species in the Gulf off the Texas coast.